New features for Google Keep you must try

Get up to speed with the latest features to be added to Google Keep

Google Keep on the desktop and on phones is a great app for creating reminders, storing notes and building to-do lists. Are you up to date with the latest features? Here are some new ones.

When Google Keep was first launched it was a very simple app for storing notes. It has steadily developed into a more powerful app that has more functionality and every so often Google tweaks it and adds some great new features.

Glance at the app and you might not notice these new features because at first sight it looks the same as always, but you don’t have to dig very deep to find things that weren’t there last time you looked. Google sneaks them in without you noticing.

Keep can be accessed by going to keep.google.com and it will then run in the full browser window. However, it can run as an app in its own window too. Get Keep from the Chrome Web Store and after installing it, click the new tab button, click the Apps button in the top left corner, and then click Keep.

Create a shortcut to keep on the desktop by opening a new tab, clicking the Apps button, right clicking the Keep icon and click Create shortcuts.

Now that you have Keep open, click the List button in the Add note box and type in a list of tasks or things to do.

Click Done when you have finished the list and it will look something like this.

When you complete a task, click the box to tick it. This indicates that it is done and it is moved to the bottom of the list, leaving the next item in the to-do list at the top.

Moving completed tasks to the bottom is an option. It is probably convenient for most people, but it can be changed if you prefer. Click the menu button in the top left corner and then click Settings down near the bottom of the menu.

There are two options for lists and the first one applies when creating a list. New items are added to the bottom. Clearing the tick means that tasks are added to the top of the list. Which do you prefer? Try it both ways – adding to the bottom and adding to the top and see which works best for you.

When you are writing a list, suppose you get them in the wrong order. Just click and drag an item up or down the list to rearrange the order. When the mouse hovers over a list item (when editing a note) a little blocky gadget appears at the left side. Click and drag it to move the note.

Getting back to the settings, there is a reminders section with Morning, Afternoon and Evening times. When you are entering a note, a small toolbar is displayed at the bottom. The first icon is to set a reminder or alarm. Click it and a list of options is displayed. The next reminder default is one of those options.

Setting the default times can save you a bit of time and effort when setting reminders. If you always want to be reminded when you start work or leave for home for example, set the times in Settings and they are easily selected on the reminders menu.

Notes can be copied to Google Docs. This is useful if you have written or pasted a lot of text in a note and want to use it in a document. Click a note to select it, click the three dots in the toolbar and click Copy to Google Doc to open the note text in a new Google document.

Where is the document and what is it called? The following message appears at the bottom of the Google Keep window. Just click OPEN DOC to open the document. You can then rename it, export it as a PDF or Word file, edit it and so on.

Keep keeps on getting better through small, but upseful updates. If you have not tried it yet, you should. It does not suit every note taking task, but for short and simple notes it is fine